Do recent Palestinian
schoolbooks eliminate Israel from the Middle East?
April 4, 2007
The following is a letter composed by
CMIP Chairman in response to a debate held on Fox News
on April 4, 2007, between Mr. Steve A. Emerson, Executive
Director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, and Ms.
Diana Buttu, Former Legal Advisor to the PLO, on the subject
of Palestinian and Israeli school textbooks.
The question of whether "Palestinian Authority schoolbooks
eliminate Israel, essentially, geographically and politically,
from the map of the Middle East?" was at the center of
a debate conducted by David Asman on Fox News on
April 4, 2007 between Steve Emerson, the executive director
of the Investigative Project on Terrorism and Diana Buttu,
former legal adviser to the PLO.
Diana Buttu, invoking their independent review
by a "Jewish American professor by the name of Nathan
Brown", claimed that the Palestinian schoolbooks pass
muter, did not teach hatred, did not eliminate Israel geographically
and politically and were even better than the Israeli ones.
As a matter of fact, Prof. Brown sole contribution
to this topic was an invited paper presented in November 2001[1]
which attempting to minimize CMIP's reports on Palestinian
schoolbooks, notably the one issued in 2000 on 34 new school
textbooks for Grades 1 and 6 just produced by the PA.[2]
What is crystal clear is that Nathan Brown
never reviewed most of the Palestinian school textbooks, namely
those for Grades, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Invoking
his pseudo authoritative review is therefore tantamount to
a fraud. The same can be said with regard to his "expertise"
re Israeli school textbooks since he never reviewed them at
all.
From CMIP's systematic and on going review
of all the Palestinian schoolbooks, since 1998 to the present,
it can be stated that generally, they indeed eliminate Israel,
from the map of the Middle East and that the fundamentals
taught in them re the Jews and Israel are the following:
Jews are foreigners and have no rights whatsoever
in Palestine. They have a dubious and even murderous character.
Israel is an illegitimate occupier of all Palestine.
A violent struggle for liberation, enhanced
by the traditional Islamic concept of Jihad and martyrdom,
is advocated and encouraged. The exact area to be liberated
is never specified, implying that it includes the whole country,
i.e. pre-1967 Israel.
In 2005, probably as a response to international
criticism, some commendable changes were introduced in the
schoolbooks for grade 11, although at the same time maintaining
the fundamentals. For the first time ever, information was
given about Jewish history in Jerusalem and ancient Palestine[3],
the name of "Israel" appeared on two maps[4], there
was a clear reference to the Islamic need to exercise tolerance
towards Jews[5] and there was a clear cut admission that it
was the Arab side which started the war in 1948 in defiance
of the UN Partition resolution[6].
Unfortunately, none of these interesting
and promising developments were maintained in the schoolbooks
for Grade 12 issued by the Palestinian Authority in 2006,
now under the control of the new elected Hamas government.
[1] "Democracy,
History and the Contest over the Palestinian Curriculum,"
a paper presented at the conference on "Attitudes towards
the past in conflict resolution" organized in November
2001 by the "Adam Institute for Democracy ad Peace in
Memory of Emil Greenzweig" (Jerusalem).
[2] Click here to read CMIP's response to Prof. Brown
[3] Modern and Contemporary History of Palestine, Part I ,
p. 9 and p. 11. Islamic Education, Part.I, p. 15
[4] Modern and Contemporary History of Palestine, Part II,
p. 57 and 58
[5] Islamic Education, Part II, pp. 110-113
[6] Modern and Contemporary History of Palestine, II, pp.
30, 33, 35
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